Professionally linked: Brooks to Cameron

I am so rooting for you tomorrow not just as a personal friend but because professionally were definitely in this together. Speech of your life? Yes he Cam! Brooks told Cameron in a play on US President Barack Obamas campaign slogan Yes we can!. The message was given the night before his speech to the Conservative Partys annual conference.

Testifying under oath at the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics,Cameron said Brooks had merely meant that they had a common interest because The Sun newspaper had come out in support of the Conservative Party ahead of the 2010 election.

Yes he Cam was The Suns headline the day after he made the 2009 speech,suggesting Brooks had decided how the newspaper would react to the speech before it was made.

Brooks quit her News Corp job last year over phone-hacking by reporters on her watch and has since been charged with perverting the course of justice for allegedly hiding evidence.

Cameron repeatedly pointed the finger at Labour during his testimony. He dismissed as a conspiracy theory an accusation by Brown that the Conservatives had discreetly championed Murdochs interests in return for support from his newspapers.

Not only was there no covert deal,there was no overt deal,and there wasnt nods and winks, Cameron said. Of course I wanted to win over newspapers, Cameron said,referring to his approach to the British press after he became the Conservative Party leader in 2005.

Cameron squirmed as lawyer Robert Jay pressed him to say how often he used to meet up with Brooks in the country.

Not every weekend 8230; Id have to check. I might be able to go back and check. But I dont think every weekend.

Citing 1,400 meetings with media figures while he was in opposition,Cameron said,he had 10 meetings with Rupert Murdoch,15 with his son,James,and 19 with Brooks,formerly a senior executive of News International,the British newspaper subsidiary of Murdochs News Corporation. But he said there could have been further meetings that had not been registered in his official diary.

Cameron also faced questioning about his relationship with Coulson,the former editor,who is facing perjury charges in a separate case. While still in Opposition,Cameron hired Coulson as his director of communications in 2007 after the former editor resigned from The News of the World over earlier disclosures in the phone hacking scandal. I thought it was legitimate to give him a second chance, Cameron said.

Cameron spent five hours answering questions Thursday. The inquiry has shown generations of politicians from both main parties have fawned over Murdoch and people close to him.